Chapter Thirteen


The clomping sound of military boots was coming closer. I looked up at Sarah, crouched in the middle of the dome, her hands on the walls. "You ready?" I called up.

"As ready as I'll ever be," came the reply. I detected a note of doubt in her voice, one that I shared. I wasn't sure that this plan could ever really work. There was too much at stake.

Soldiers began pouring into the dome, along with a few medics who immediately moved Chloe out of the area on a stretcher. There were soon thirty men with rifles aimed at our heads spread about the room. Griffin moved to the front of the crowd.

"Technically, I should be upset at what you've done to my, ahem, superior," he said snidely. "But I feel you've done me a great service. As a result, I may only keep you here for, say, a year or two before shipping you off to the lab people for study."

Sarah shot him a look that was filled with more hot fury than a pair of fireballs. "I don't think you're in a position to retain us like this, Griffin."

"And why not? I have you surrounded, outnumbered, beaten. I can do whatever I like."

"I don't think so, Colonel," I replied. "You see, in this situation, you're the one that's been beaten."

Griffin stared at me for a second, then burst out laughing. "You're kidding, right? You think you have any power in this situation?" He then brandished another weapon identical to Chloe's. "We just got in a shipment full of these. They can disable both you and your giant friend with ease. But I think you're familiar with them already, no?"

I grimaced. I had a feeling that all our plan would do was force another stalemate. However, I supposed, stalemate was better than check.

"Griffin, you're outmatched. You may be able to stun us, but in doing so you'd wind up killing yourselves."

Griffin's face hardened back into its default snarl. "What do you mean?"

"What he means," Sarah broke in. "Is that we just destroyed the major structural foundations of this dome." I could see Griffin scanning the bottom of the dome, his face graying by the second. "I'm currently the only thing that's holding this building up."

For a second Griffin merely gaped. Then he forced his jaw shut, and spoke through clenched teeth. "What are your terms?"

"I'm glad you're being reasonable -" Sarah began.

"Cut to the chase!" Griffin barked, clearly seriously upset at losing the upper hand in the situation.

"Remember, Griffin, we're the ones in charge here. You may want to consider a more respectful tone." I cut in.

"Here's the deal," Sarah said coolly. "We give you and your men five minutes to clear the area. In return, you give us five minutes to run."

"What is this, hide and go seek? This isn't a children's game." Griffin said acidly.

"Those are our terms, Griffin. I can move right now, and let the whole building fall in, killing all of you. Or you can save your men, and give us a chance of escape. It would be the honorable thing to do."

This was a mistake. Sarah was trying to provoke Griffin's sense of honor and duty, but I knew full well that he had none whatsoever. In fact, Griffin was about as underhanded as they come. Tactically, he was like an animal, seizing any opportunity that came his way, regardless of how many lives it would take or how cheap the shot.

"Very well," Griffin said, head bowed. "We will give you a head start. You will allow us to evacuate. Starting now."

He signaled his men to exit the dome, and they filed out. "He's plotting something," I whispered to Sarah over the mic.

"Without a doubt," she murmured back. "But for now we've got the upper hand. Now climb up and strap yourself in, it's going to be a bumpy ride."

I quickly used Sess to scale Sarah's body, clambering swiftly up her leg, scaling her stomach, moving around her chest and up to her shoulder. "Okay, get going."

Without further ado Sarah leapt outwards, shattering the dome and causing scattered parts of it to fly outwards in all directions. Then she was running, huge strides which left foot-deep depressions in the plains, propelling herself forward a hundred feet at a time. The wind rushed by me at sickeningly fast rates, making it hard to breathe. Far worse was the motion. Sarah's center of gravity made it so I constantly felt like I was falling forwards, about to plummet into the ground. It was like being on a non-stop rollercoaster, or a ship in the middle of a legendary storm. I struggled to keep my grip and hold down my lunch.

Sarah kept her frantic pace, and I suddenly realized that she was running without thinking, and probably had no idea where she was going to. "Sarah, slow down a sec!" I yelled up.

"What is it?" She asked, panting. I could see her chest rising and falling rapidly just below me, a view I took pleasure in even in such extreme circumstances.

"Do you know where you're going?"

It dawned on her. "No idea."

I quickly typed in the coordinates to my house on my watch, which has a built-in GPS function. "Due west, quickly."

"That means?"

"To your left," I replied.

She broke once more into that long, pounding stride. I busied myself by looking over her shoulder. It had been more than five minutes, and I was waiting for the nasty surprise I just knew Griffin had lying in wait.

There was a high whistling noise in the air, and then I saw the shell moving toward us. "Duck!" I screamed.

Sarah bent, hands over head, as the mortar shell hit the ground just behind us. There was a large explosion, dirt flying everywhere, heat intense enough for me to feel one hundred and fifty feet above. Sarah stumbled slightly, nearly giving me a heart attack and almost detaching me from my perch, but regained her balance and pressed on.

"There's three mortars behind us," I shouted up as she ran. "They're firing one after the other. If you zigzag we've got a better chance of staying clear."

"Okay," Sarah said steadily and began to tack left and right as explosions went off all around us. She was keeping her cool very nicely. I realized right then that Sarah was much more together than I first assumed. She had clearly seen some sort of trouble before, or she wouldn't be quite so good at getting out of it.

The mortars continued their attack at a steady pace, but I began to notice that Sarah was flagging. Her strides weren't quite as long, her movements not as fluid. I began to see a small squad of trucks following closely in our stead. They managed to stay just out of the mortars' range, but close enough to qualify as in pursuit. They're waiting for us to fall, I realized. They're going to swoop in when we falter.

Then there was an explosion that was truly deafening. I felt the heat from the blast, almost scorching my face, and I heard Sarah cry out. I had been slightly blinded by the flash, but what I could see was confused anyway, a blur of confused motion. Sarah was stumbling. She fell forward, onto her hands, launching me out of my perch on her shoulder. I fell out into space, desperately grasping for any handhold I could find. If I hit the ground from that height, it would be the end of me.

I landed, hard, on Sarah's knee. The fall took the wind out of me instantly, and I was unable to breathe, let alone get a grip. Sess' shock absorbance had prevented any serious injury, but my vision was fading from loss of oxygen and I had to move fast. Sarah was leaning forward, losing her balance. There was another huge explosion behind us, and Sarah was falling. I saw the ground moving up towards me. The choice was simple: Either get out of the way, or be crushed.

I leapt off her leg and prepared myself for the shock of landing.

There was a loud crunching noise which I assumed to be bad. You don't feel the pain right away after a fall like that, but you hear it, in the sickening noises that follow. Then you see it, when you look down at your leg and it's in an angle which is the definition of wrong. That's when, intellectually, you know you've been hurt bad. But you feel the pain last.

It came like pins and needles, as if my leg was asleep. Then the prickling sensations turned into sharp, knife-stabbing pains shooting up my knee. I examined it carefully and decided it wasn't broken. Next to me, Sarah was lying on the ground, quietly sobbing. She'd been hurt too, as bad if not worse than I was.

As my vision began to fade once more, descending into a series of oddly colored sparks and bright flashes of pain, I rolled onto my back. They've gotten us, I thought distractedly. They got us and now what will they do to us?


"Rise and shine," said a foul voice close to my ear. I opened my eyes to see large yellowing teeth right before me.

Griffin stood back up from his crouching position. I propped myself up on my elbows. We were still in the middle of the plains, now surrounded by a number of trucks filled to the brim with soldiers. I noticed, with some relief, that the mortars were gone.

Behind me Sarah was sitting upright, tightly clutching her massive leg. It had a large laceration in it which seemed to be bleeding profusely. I was very glad right then that I wasn't squeamish about blood. I looked up to see her staring at me, fear and pain in her eyes. There were tears welling up in them. There was nothing I wanted more right then to erase that horrible look in her eyes, replace it with one of happiness or joy. But there was nothing I could do. They'd gotten us, and they'd gotten us good.

There was a pounding ache in my head as well as the splintering pain in my knee. I reflected that over the last few hours I'd been bruised, broken, shocked, tortured, and shot more than any other man still alive. Not even Sess could handle the various injuries I'd endured, and now it was struggling to compensate. My mouth was bone dry, my head felt like it was stuffed with gauze and my teeth felt like they were somehow vibrating. Something warm and wet dribbled down my forehead and into my eyes. I put my fingers to it, and they came away red.

The sniper shot. Sess could no longer fully staunch the flow of blood. I groaned. Things weren't looking good.

"Get up," Griffin said, prodding me with the tip of a mud-covered combat boot. I struggled to my feet, shivering. "Looks like your little gambit didn't work so well after all." He said, his voice cruel to my ears.

Sarah stared back at him, her gaze now defiant. Even through the haze of drugs and pain, I admired how composed she was.

"So, the question is, what should I do with you?" said Griffin, his tone malevolent. He had the upper hand once more, and now he was able to enjoy all the spoils victory could afford. I had a feeling that he was soon to realize just how few those spoils were. Victory can be hollow sometimes as well, no matter how hard won. "I obviously can't take you back to any containment facility, you'd simply find another way to break out.

"So, how can I contain you?" he said, beginning to pace back and forth, a truly cruel smirk developing on his visage. "What will allow me control?"

I already knew the decision he would come to. It was the decision that had to be made every time a weaker group needed to subdue the stronger.

"I have to dominate you," he concluded. "I need to crush your spirit. You know that this is what I must do."

"Why exactly are you telling us this aloud?" I said coldly, feeling a gorge rising in my throat.

"Because, Dr. Lehmann, I want your understanding when I force you into my next action. I want you to comprehend the motives behind my actions." A chill flew down my spine. He's planned this in advance, I thought. This is all script. He's been planning this ever since he got us, just been waiting for the right time to pounce.

"Do what you must, Griffin." Sarah said, her tone of voice oddly flat, almost uncaring. She was steeling herself, deadening the pain she knew was about to come.

Griffin took a megaphone from on of the men nearby. "Extend your hand, woman, put it down on the ground." Griffin spoke authoritatively, his voice bold and commanding. "Lehmann, get onto it." We had no choice but to do as he said.

"Now, raise him to your face," Griffin continued, an odd smile growing on him. "And open your mouth."

Sarah looked aghast, instantly seeing where this was headed. Griffin's smile was now a devilish grin, as perverted as anything I had seen in my life. The man was enjoying this.

"Refusal to comply will result in your termination," Griffin shouted harshly through the megaphone.

Sarah's mouth opened behind me, a huge, glistening pink maw descending into darkness somewhere below. I felt her hot, slightly minty breath on my back. "Now," commanded Griffin, "Put Lehmann inside."

"Do it," I said over the mic. "We've got no choice. Just be careful, and I'll manage."

Sarah's hand slowly tipped me in, and I carefully leapt down into the dark, warm space. I landed in her saliva, on the pink, rough whale that was her tongue. Involuntarily, her tongue began to arch backwards, knocking me over. I managed to roll to the side and off, onto a hard slick, surface, one of her teeth. I carefully wedged myself between the tooth and the moist flesh on the inside of her cheek. Then I focused on maintaining a grip and trying to breathe in the oppressive heat and humidity.

Distantly I heard Griffin's last instruction. "Close your mouth, and swallow."

Slowly the massive porcelain teeth the size of houses closed, lips sealing out all light. Then, a wave of saliva came rushing towards me, and I was squeezed tightly between Sarah's inner cheek and tooth as she began to swallow. Huge muscles were contracting behind me, and there were horrible sounds of saliva gurgling and air whistling down the tubes into her lungs.

I yelled over the mic, "Okay, spit me out onto your hand and let's take care of these creeps."

The lips opened, curving into a funnel as a massive burst of air behind me flung me out of her mouth. I fell out onto her palm, which swiftly moved back onto her shoulder. I focused on getting a grip, trying to block out the blinding pain threatening to consume me whole.

Sarah broke smoothly into a diving kick, driving her bare foot squarely into the masses of soldiers, overturning trucks and hurling soldiers into the distance. Sarah quickly recovered and picked up one of the trucks full of men, then throwing it back down onto the ground, where it collided with another truck taking out several more of the soldiers.

Most of the men seemed too surprised at this sudden retaliation to actually organize and do anything. They stood in awe as Sarah let out a furious cry and began to lift one of her tremendous bare feet, bringing it crashing down in the thick of the group. Now the soldiers reacted, scattering in all directions as Sarah began to rampage, letting loose all of her anger. I was stunned at the destruction she managed to cause as she brought her feet slamming down onto the ground, crushing whatever was beneath it, be it military man or machine.

By the time she was finished, the remaining soldiers had all fled to the distant hills. Then Sarah turned and began running, as fast as she could, due west towards the lab, never once looking back.